The essay “Mother Tongue” describes a writer who grew up with a mother of Asian origin and the limitations created by her mother’s speech. The author, Amy Tan, defines her mother’s English as “broken” and that it created communication barriers. For example, when Tan’s mother would need to call her boss about work, she would rely on her daughter to make the phone call and use proper english. When Tan decided to go into English in college, it seemed foolish since she was more skilled in math and science. The author also mentions how not everyone’s speech is the same, but that is not a bad thing. Tan decided to start writing fiction, and write a book in a way her mother would comprehend. Though the writing was harshly critiqued, Tan knew she…
Despite what many people may think, relationships are not the key to a happy life. This misconception exists today in order to support the idea of investing in relationships with friends, family, coworkers, or even love-interests; however, living according to this misconception causes people a tremendous amount of sorrow and frustration. Often times individuals let those around them hurt them to merely maintain or restore a relationship. Relationships are supposed to be a mutual “give and take” association between two or more persons, but it appears that the torment and anxiety caused by relationships forces individuals to “give” a little more than they can “take.” Using distinct rhetorical strategies, several unique authors reveal this disheartening…
Dave Chappelle returns to his hometown of Washington D.C. in the year 2000, during his tour around the country, to perform for the people of D.C. During his show “Killin’ Him Softly” Chappelle effectively uses rhetorical strategies by engaging his audience, understanding the culture he is addressing, as well as exemplifying the problem with racial stereotypes and the disparity of police brutality between the African American community and the white community.…
The Article, Supplements are a Shame by Mike Tanier, argues one big factor that is influenced by many athletes, gym rats, and regular Americans who take supplements on a daily basis. The main argument that this article stresses is how most of the supplements that people take is just a big waste of money. Mike Tanier also argues that there is a lot more we don’t know about supplements than what we actually do know. For instance, even though we do not know how big the supplement industry is, we have a good estimate but do not know how many athletes use them, we do not know who is in charge, we do not know what these products actually do to our body, we don’t know what is contained in the bottles.…
The writer’s purpose in genre is that she is now a Korean-American who once lived wealthy in Korea and then was moved to the big city of Queens, New York in the 1980’s, then was forced to learn English.…
In South Central, Los Angeles, there is a food epidemic taking place among the population. For miles and miles, the only easily attainable food source is fast food; causing the overconsumption of un-nutritious, greasy, and fattening food. This is the problem brought to the public’s attention by speaker Ron Finley in his Ted Talks speech, “A Guerilla Gardener in South Central L.A.” Finley explains how everywhere he looks in his native South Central, all he sees are fast food chains and Dialysis clinics opened due to the lack of nutritious food. Finley views the lack of a healthy food source as a serious problem, and brings up his point; there are miles of vacant lots throughout Los Angeles, all of which could be used for the cultivation of healthy fruits and vegetables to better the urban community’s diet and health.…
As a year 12 student my peers and I are intrigued as to why we study a compilation of speeches that were delivered before our time to audiences in contrasting contexts? And how this has any form of relevance to a contemporary audience studying the HSC in 2013? Through study I have discovered the answer is that these carefully selected speeches all deliver universal themes that are significant despite the period in time and the audience to which they are delivered or in our case, studied. They challenge their audience’s perception of society and inspire them to ask questions and seek answers. In order for a speech to achieve textual integrity it must have ongoing contextual…
I believe that the rhetorical strategy of narration is both seen differently in the article, “Unnatural Killers”, by John Grisham and the article, “The Case Against College Athletic Recruiting” by Ben Adler. Both appeal emotionally to the reader but one is a lot more logical in its approach then the other.…
Well-known Sci-fi writer, Ray Bradbury, in his novel, Fahrenheit 451, illustrates that relationships reflect who individuals are and who they want to be. Bradbury’s purpose is to promote the idea that a person should have the courage to listen to their own beliefs and thoughts of happiness rather than to blend in with society. He adopts a disoriented and poetic tone in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences on a non-realistic scale in his young adult readers.…
One Voice by Susan Madera is a story that I can very well relate to. Here we see how Madera struggles with her form of speech, because she speaks a language she calls “neighborhood” which she has acquired growing up. This does not affect the fact that she is an exemplary writer. “The language that I picked up on the streets was a part of me but as I grew up I wanted to get as far away from it as possible”(78); this shows that through various stages of her life, Madera has had experiences that have made her form of speech a burden to her. It is something that she is not proud of, and she considers it as a disadvantage in her life that she has to rid herself from. Her speech literacy was acquired involuntarily from her environment, her neighborhood.…
“It’s become a sad rite of passage in many American communities, the services held for teenagers killed in auto accidents before they’ve even scored a tassel to hang from the rearview mirror”. Anna Quindlen wrote the article ,”Driving to the Funeral” in June 11, 2007 issue of news week to make parents think twice before allowing their 16 year-old drive a car. Anna discusses issue on how too often teens are killed in car accidents and why something should be done about it. With the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, Anna illustrates that teens are too young to take on the responsibility of driving and that the solution to our problem is simple: change the legal driving age to 18.…
During the recent decades, there has been a growing debate over what role that businesses should play when it comes to the increasing obesity levels in the United States of America. The prevalence of obesity has been on the rise in America for several decades now. Most people have attributed the increase of obesity to two reasons: people are consuming high-fat and high-calories foods, and people are consuming a greater number of calories than they are burning off. Kathleen Seiders and Leonard Berry are business professors at Boston College and Texas A&M University, respectively. In December 2007, they published the article in the MIT Sloan Management Review titled, “Should Business Care About Obesity?”. The intended audience of this article includes business leaders, company executives, and entrepreneurs, all of whom the authors are attempting to persuade. In the article, Seiders and Berry argue that business leaders should seek to lessen obesity rates in America. Businesses should be…
Sometimes life gets tough and gives us obstacles and challenges just to see how we overcome them. It only takes one mistake for someone’s life to be turned upside down. Watching people go through hardships and life challenges helps us get on the right path and succeed. The book The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore himself, is based on real life challenges that two boys ironically with the same name and hometown were faced with and how their decisions on overcoming them lead them to two completely different places. One living free and being able to experience things and the other living unfortunately behind bars. Wes Moore uses the rhetorical appeals ethos, logos, and pathos to engage the readers attention on how two boys with so many similarities can grow up and live two completely opposite lives.…
Do traffic signals make a difference when drivers are conducting their vehicles? In U.K. the roads have less signs and are smaller roads than in the United States. The United States has great amounts of traffic signals and symbols all over the road to make the driver more aware. In the U.K. accidents do occur but not that often has in the United States. In the Unites States every second there is huge amounts of accidents going on over the nation. John Staddon in his magazine article “Distracting Miss Daisy” tries to persuade that traffic control is making traffic more dangerous because we do not pay attention to the road, but to the signals.…
The writer presents a young adolescent who is in her initial stages of life. Initially, she does not know that she is poor, but from her interactions with Miss Moore and the other rich kids, she becomes aware of her environment. She is however reluctant to accept that she is disadvantaged which a positive character is. It is surprising to note that believes she is the best despite realizing that she is disadvantaged. She portrays a positive character when she says, “aint nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.” She is different from many people who would feel this affects their ego. She is focused on remaining upbeat that she is the best among all of her…